But for the Grace of…

Homeless people are not so very different from us, and the idea that they live only on Skid Row is wrong. In many, if not most neighborhoods of Los Angeles, some of our neighbors are men and women living on the streets. Sitting and talking with them one hears stories of addiction, jail, illness, and pure bad luck.

The common thread in the hours of discussion that I’ve had is hope for a better life, hope for a life away from drugs. Almost uniformly I have discovered people with a simple grace.

Sitting on the sidewalk and talking with a group on Lincoln Avenue in Venice, three homeless men spoke of how they had formed a family of sorts and invited me back several nights later for dinner on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, when I returned, they had moved on.

Looking through these photos, it is not hard to imagine a run of bad luck and life on the street.